Longwood Gardens Ferns - September 2013

There are always a few ferns that catch my attention in the Longwood Gardens Conservatory. There is a Fern Passage that is lined with them. Usually I am focused on fiddleheads - those tightly curled beginnings of fronds.

This time I noticed one but was almost immediately more interested in the sporangia on the underside of the fronds. This is where the spores are produced that will become the next generation of ferns. The patterns of the fronds and the sporangia have a precision and symmetry that is quite appealing.